Short-term Rental Leases in Santa Monica: A Case Study

Santa Monica, CA has strict short-term rental regulations. Stays shorter than 31 days are strictly prohibited. This posed a challenge to us when we signed our first Santa Monica client. The client is a large REIT with an apartment community located across the street from Santa Monica beach. Using ApartmentJet, they went from approximately 60% occupied to nearly 100% occupied. This is the story of their success.

Managing Guests, Leasing Process, and Availability

For longer stays, a key focus for ApartmentJet is working with a client’s existing lease process. Our Concierge team handles all booking management and interactions with guests, responding to inquiries and questions seven days a week, allowing the site team to remain unencumbered by booking activity.

We use the property’s daily availability report to manage listings and availability across all 50+ units. We also confirm availability before approving any reservation. Soon, we will integrate directly with the property’s availability feed to automate this process.

Once we screen and book a guest, we provide all necessary guest and occupant data to the site team so they can put together their regular lease documents. There is no new activity or process for the site team to learn, and zero additional expense is added to property operations.

Airbnb & HomeAway for Lease Generation

Prior to using ApartmentJet, the property published their own listings on HomeAway/VRBO, but they had never seen much activity. They also discovered manual listings are difficult to maintain and support. They challenged ApartmentJet to increase their leases from short-term channels and reduce the effort required of their site team.

In August 2017, we added their content to the ApartmentJet platform along with unit data for their 50+ furnished units.

From August 2017 to July 2018, we’ve booked 36 reservations, each for 31 days or more. Gross bookings have surpassed $218,000. The guest for each of those reservations signed the property’s normal lease and underwent criminal background screening.

Winning with a New Channel

We’ve booked nearly four years worth of paid nightly revenue (1384 nights) for this property with new leases generated from AirBnB, HomeAway, and VRBO. The process using ApartmentJet is both easier to manage and more successful than the previous manual process.

This is a win for everyone, and it demonstrates the power of short-term rental marketplaces as well as the effectiveness and efficiency of the ApartmentJet platform.